The international master (IM) lost to higher-rated players in the pool stage, where she found that every other participant held a grandmaster (GM) title, the highest title in the sport.

“Of course, the hope [to win the tournament] is there, but we athletes are objective […]. I know that even just to reach the semifinals is hard,” Irene told The Jakarta Post at the venue on Thursday.

In chess there is a numerical rating system effectuated by the International Chess Federation (FIDE) and accepted worldwide, which categorizes professional chess players in certain groups, such as IM or GM.

Per June this year, Irene’s rating is 2,383, far below the GM threshold of 2,500.

The gap can be explained by the fact that Irene entered the OEW on a wild card invitation, as opposed to joining the open qualifier that started two months prior.

According to FIDE’s website, 42,000 players from 219 countries participated in the qualifier, through which the eight best ones qualified for the tournament. In addition to that, two players can enter on wild cards, one of which is reserved for the host nation, the other for a female player.

The final result notwithstanding, this achievement cannot be underestimated, especially given that this event might become part of sports history with the inclusion of both e-sports and chess into the Olympics.

“I hope that we are one step closer to getting chess into the Olympics, and I’m proud that I can be a part of this historical event,” said Irene.

Despite the magnitude of the event in the global context, Irene said she had not received any support from the Indonesian government and had flown to Singapore out of her own pocket with some financial help from the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

“I don’t even know if the government knows that I’m here,” Irene said.

“I’d be grateful if they knew,” she added, emphasizing that chess as a sport had been largely ignored in Indonesia by the government.

Indonesian chess player Irene Sukandar contemplates as she plays white in the second match of the pool stage of Olympic Esports Week 2023 in Suntec City, Singapore, on June 23, 2023. (JP/Deni Ghifari)

Indonesian Chess Association (Percasi) vice chairman for development Kristianus Liem told the Post on Friday that the state of chess as a sport was “distressing,” despite the achievements Indonesian athletes had attained.

“Speaking candidly, chess gets the least support when compared to other sports, even with our achievements,” said Kristianus, adding that “we have been bending over backwards, to no avail.”

He noted that the government did get involved in chess development for the SEA Games, where Indonesian players logged achievements as grand champion in 2019 and runner-up in 2021.

Jakarta is also involved in the Asian Games, but the sport does not always make it into the regional tournament. However, chess will be contested for Asian Games 2023 and Percasi said it is desperately in need of government funding for athlete training.

“We have requested for [10 players] to be included in the national training camp. […] They didn’t even approve that,” Kristianto said, explaining that the request was the bare minimum.

Sports development in Indonesia, including for chess, relies partly on financial support from the private sector.

Kristianus said private donations helped the sport survive but the corporate sector was dragging its feet over chess, with few private donors taking the initiative.

“We have been asking many [potential] sponsors for help, but we always only scored with our friends, […] either a friend of [Percasi chairman and lawmaker] Utut Adianto or other vice chairmens’ connections. But it’s always the usual suspects,” said Kristianus.

OEW 2023 is the first e-sports-related event for the Olympics, sparking hope and speculation that e-sports may be included in next year’s Paris Olympics.

While qualification rounds for many of the 10 virtual sports featured in the OEW were held in the months prior, all the finals were staged in Singapore on June 23 and 24.

Alibaba Cloud was involved in the event as a partner and provided an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven tool called Energy Expert, which generates data-driven insight on the choice of materials and equipment used in the OEW, as well as measuring the carbon footprint of the event.